Is Microsoft Spying On SkyDrive Users?

Kelly Clay
, ContributorI write about social media, startups and technology trends.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

According to a report on Windows Phone community site, WMPoweruser, Microsoft has banned another SkyDrive account holder for violating the terms of service. The user (who goes by WingsOfFury on a Dutch forum), his account was banned after backing up 10-12GB from his hard drive. Among the contents were some videos that contained nudity or partial nudity. WingsOfFury seems to be claiming that these folders were private.

SkyDrive has strict Terms of Service, including, but not limited to, prohibiting the upload, post, transmit, or transfer, of any content (including text, images, sound, video, data, information or software) or otherwise use the service in a way that:

depicts nudity of any sort including full or partial human nudity or nudity in non-human forms such as cartoons, fantasy art or manga.

provides or creates links to external sites that violate this Code of Conduct.

SkyDrive is Microsoft's cloud storage solution, which gives you access to your files on any device. Much like Dropbox or iCloud, you can share those files with others or use the service as a way to store your own files privately

For a public service the terms of service are fair. Most reasonable people would agree that people should be protect from harmful and hateful material on public services.

Who determines what constitutes vulgarity on a private storage solution? Most reasonable people would also agree that private services should protect against things like child pornography. But imagine if E.L. James decided to use a cloud backup solution for the next book in the Fifty Shades of Grey series. Would those text files, which could be vulgar, profane, or obscene to some, cause James' SkyDrive account to get shut down?

And how did Microsoft know that there was such content on the user's SkyDrive account? The only plausible explanation is that Microsoft is analyzing content uploaded to SkyDrive - even content uploaded to private folders - and it's likely an automated process designed to pull the trigger when it "sees" certain content (such as nudity.)

The problem here is that not only does Microsoft appear to be reading or looking at your private data (which is scary enough) but such an automated process could limit your access to email for sharing or storing something as innocent as a photo of you breastfeeding your baby, or a picture of your child in the bathtub, which most reasonable people would consider normal inclusions in many family photo albums. For such false positives, this may trigger a warning (or service cancellation) from Microsoft, with even innocent photos involving child nudity potentially triggering FBI involvement.

For an increasing number of consumers across the globe, storing photos, documents and other forms of "data" to the cloud is becoming common. Dozens of services offer solutions for these consumers who want access to this information anywhere, anytime, including Microsoft, which offers SkyDrive.

While some cloud backup services, like Dropbox and Box.net maintain user accounts specific to the service, SkyDrive is tied to other products. The same Windows Live ID used for SkyDrive, which gives users automatic access to files across PCs, Macs, iPad, and Windows Phones devices, also provides access to Hotmail, Xbox LIVE, and several other Microsoft services. If Microsoft bans your account because you backed up the photos from your Windows Phone, for instance, you might lose access to your Xbox and email at the same time.

Doesn't SkyDrive sound like something you want to use to share important, personal information? To me, it sounds more like Skynet. While this is a reminder to be cautious about what you store on any third party service, most consumers assume that their private data remains private to their account when they use online storage. If SkyDrive user WingsOfFury is to be belived, storing data on SkyDrive is anything but.